Russia loses Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy

Russia's Defence Ministry has confirmed the sinking of the ship Moskva in the Black Sea. According to Moscow, the ship sank "due to damage to the hull caused by a fire caused by the detonation of ammunition" as it was being transferred to the port in the middle of a storm.

Ukraine reported the sinking of the ship, noting that it had received a Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile. This type of weapon was designed after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. For its part, Russia denied Kiev's claims, saying that the causes of the fire were unclear.

The Moskva began operations in 1983 and was currently armed with sixteen anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of at least 700 kilometres. The flagship of the Russian Navy took part in one of the battles during the early days of the war, in fact, it was the ship that demanded the surrender of a Ukrainian brigade defending Snake Island. In response, the Moskva received insults from the Ukrainian troops on the islet. The ship was also previously deployed in the Syrian war.

According to intelligence expert Justin Crump, the Moskva's primary role had been to provide air defence support to other ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet. "Its main asset was very long-range anti-aircraft weapon systems, very long-range ship anti-surface weapon systems. It was not conducting land-based attacks," he tells the BBC.

The Moskva is the second major ship Russia has lost since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. In March, a Russian ship was destroyed by a Ukrainian attack off the port of Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov. However, the 12,490-tonne Moskva is the largest Russian warship sunk since World War II.

This sinking is a major blow for Russia and a new military setback for its army. As Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, told the British media, the loss of the ship was "very embarrassing" for Moscow. "This has a big impact. Putin loves the navy. When he came to power, the first part of the old Soviet forces he worked on was the navy. He has always had a soft spot for it," he explains.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, meanwhile, called the event "a big blow to the Black Sea Fleet", as does US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. "What happened is a big blow to Russia," he said.

The setbacks Russia has suffered during the 50-day war heighten fears about the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. CIA director William Burns stresses that the US should not "take lightly" the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, given the complications it has encountered during its invasion. Burns refers to the "potential desperation of Putin and Russian leaders".

"While we have seen rhetorical positions from the Kremlin around increasing its nuclear alert level, we have not seen much tangible evidence of such deployments to back up these concerns," he added. Early in the war Putin announced that he was putting his nuclear weapons system on alert. Russia has also recently threatened to move nuclear weapons to the Baltic Sea region if Finland and Sweden join NATO, something both countries are considering.

Russia's propaganda establishment is already calling for stronger measures against Ukraine. In a programme on state television channel Rossiya 1, pundits and talk show hosts have proposed bombing Kiev, destroying Ukraine's railways and making it impossible for any world leaders to visit Ukraine in the future in retaliation for the sinking of the Moskva.